Wife cancer diagnosis

Hi PaulB24 welcome to the forum.. it is a worrying time for you both just now and this waiting time feels like you are in limbo. It's natural to be worried, we all are. It's good that you are going with her as sometimes we get so uptight we don't always take things in so it's good to have another set of ears. I'm.assuming she has had all biopsies etc and this is you going to get all the results and hear what the plan is and what the next step is for her. I know it may sound silly, but when she knows what she is dealing with she may feel relief and that's OK, its because things are happening  and she is more certain rather than being in limbo. My very best wishes to you both and Hope to see you in the forum. 

Hi Gail

Thank you for your message. Yep I want to be there at her appointments to support her.

she had her biopsy and was told it’s a positive diagnosis yes and now is the first appointment (she was in hospital for something else and was told on Friday) I am presuming this appointment is to discuss what the treatment and next steps are and what stage the cancer is at.

Hi PaulB24  sorry to hear of your wife's diagnosis. My wife was also diagnosed with breast cancer this year. She had a mastectomy with reconstruction and some lymph nodes removed, has since completed six rounds of chemo and is awaiting radiotherapy.

You'll probably find there are lots and lots of appointments: for tests, results, consultant meetings as well as treatment. Even each round of treatment can involve multiple appointments, for pre-assessments, blood tests and so on. 

I accompanied my wife to the main ones, such as results, but she was happy and able to drive herself to the rest. For chemo I dropped off and collected, some patients have someone sit with them while the chemo is administered but my wife preferred her own thoughts and a book.

Basically, prepare for months of multiple visits to hospitals, some of which may not be your local one (for example nearest radiotherapy unit is 25 miles away from us, operation was 10 miles away but chemo was at our local hospital).

The staff in all of them were always fantastic and a Macmillan nurse was in many of the appointments and then took us aside while we digested the latest news and answered immediate questions.

Sending you and your wife very best wishes for speedy treatment and a swift recovery.

Hi

many thanks for your message back, much appreciated I am preparing myself for months of appointments and being there for my wife. I think she will want me there to begin with. We don’t have a treatment plan yet getting that tomorrow and then hopefully that will give us more clarity as to what is what. 

Hi - hope it goes OK today. At least you will have some clarity on next steps. After that meeting we sat with the Macmillan nurse for a while afterwards, she was very comforting and very helpful. Very happy to keep in touch if it helps.